SYSC 6.2 Internal audit

A 7management company5 must, where appropriate and proportionate in view of the nature, scale and complexity of its business and the nature and range of its financial services and activities,5 undertaken in the course of that business, establish and maintain an internal audit function which is separate and independent from the other functions and activities of the firm and which has the following responsibilities:

Taking account of the nature, scale and complexity of its activities,
the firm should have appropriate procedures to ensure that the
removal or any other disciplinary sanctioning of the head of the
internal audit function does not undermine the independence of the
internal audit function.

(3)

In the FCA's view, it will be appropriate, in many cases, for the
removal or any other disciplinary sanctioning of the head of the
internal audit function to require the approval of a majority of the
management body, including at least a majority of its members who
do not perform any executive function in the firm.

The term 'internal audit function' in SYSC 6.2.1R (and SYSC
4.1.11G), and for a common platform firm in article 24 of the MiFID Org Regulation,7 refers to the generally understood concept of internal audit
within a firm, that is, the function of assessing adherence to and the
effectiveness of internal systems and controls, procedures and
policies.6